On Thursday, Sept. 18, County staff and community partners updated the Board of County Commissioners on the next steps related to the draft plan of the County’s first-ever Climate Justice Plan. The briefing followed the conclusion of the plan’s public comment period, which opened after the draft was presented to the Board and shared publicly in April 2025.
Brendon Haggerty, Healthy Homes & Communities Manager for the Health Department, said climate change is already harming the community’s health.
“Climate change is resulting in illness and premature death in our community. Sometimes this is directly through heat illness, injuries or property damage from severe weather,” he said. “Other impacts are less obvious or less direct, like threats to livelihood, the slow-moving damage to our ecosystems, and the mental health impacts of experiencing or witnessing the many harms of climate change.”
The draft Climate Justice Plan is meant to address the needs of Multnomah County residents who have experienced — and will continue to experience — the worst harms from climate change, including heat waves, wildfires, smoke and other extreme weather. These events have intensified in recent years due to the country and community’s continued reliance on burning fossil fuels.
“When we began climate and health planning 15 years ago, climate change still seemed like a future problem,” Haggerty said. “But now we have sweltering summers and smoke-darkened skies that remind us that climate change is here.”
The draft Climate Justice Plan took shape in partnership with the County’s Office of Sustainability and a steering committee whose members come from 13 community-based organizations representing and serving frontline communities. Frontline communities, Haggerty shared, are those that are harmed “first and worst” by the impacts of climate change. The steering committee contributed their expertise, wisdom and lived experience to the creation process.
Desiree Eden Ocampo, executive director of Rahab's Sisters and a steering committee member, said the plan will provide a community toolkit and encourage creative solutions not only from individuals and corporations, but also from the government.
“The Climate Justice Plan that you have before you addresses systemic issues that go beyond just climate action to tackle root causes — it spurs collective action,” said Ocampo.
“It builds collective power that fosters partnerships for projects and advocacy. The diversity of experience of the steering committee is a strength that was harnessed to create this climate justice plan that will lead to better outcomes for all Multnomah County residents in all socioeconomic levels.”
Since the plan was introduced in April, staff from the Office of Sustainability and Health Department have collected community feedback through online surveys, forums, and conversations. Over the past six months, staff participated in 24 events (such as presentations, tabling opportunities and roundtables), received 46 survey responses and 39 written comments, and had 597 conversations.
“One theme we heard over and over was support for the concept of climate justice,” said Office of Sustainability Director John Wasiutynski. “Community members — even those who are most skeptical about some of the strategies within the plan — applauded the focus on climate justice and voiced their support for a plan that was going to center the needs of frontline communities.”
The feedback period also produced constructive feedback, Wasiutynski said, including questions about how Multnomah County would prioritize some of the plan’s specific strategies amid budget constraints and questions about the relevance of some particular strategies that are beyond the County's direct control.
After Thursday’s Board briefing, the plan will incorporate additional feedback before moving toward its last phase before it becomes final. Staff are proposing to host 12 community forums from the end of October to mid-December, each focused on one of the plan’s goals, to hear more from partners — “whether they’re in industry, or environmental organization or just community members” — and ensure the proposed metrics and strategies are relevant, effective, timely and measurable, Wasiutynski told the Board. More information on how to attend the community forums can be found here.
Office of Sustainability staff would also use their expertise to evaluate the County’s “readiness to move forward on those strategies, the cost, and to make sure we're presenting an ambitious but realistic plan to address the root causes of climate change in our community,” Wasiutynski said.
The Board will have a final work session before the plan is finalized to provide feedback about the revised metrics and strategies, followed by a vote to approve the plan.
Board comment
"I am excited to see the progress of the Climate Justice Plan and look forward to working with the Office of Sustainability as they further refine specific strategies and costs, in partnership with the community,” said Commissioner Shannon Singleton. “It is important that this work leverages resources and opportunities from the cities of Gresham and Portland, Metro, and state climate plans and programs. This Climate Justice Plan will help us build a more climate resilient future, together."
Commissioner Singleton sought confirmation that the Board’s ultimate approval of the plan would not be taken as a de facto commitment for which strategies might receive funding in any given fiscal year. She said she expects to see any funding requests come forward as formal budget proposals for the Boards to decide on through the County’s typical budget process.
“That's correct,” said Wasiutynski. “It’s typical for us to identify potential actions in a plan like this, and then we identify ambitious goals, we identify specific strategies, and then it's up to the nitty-gritty of budgeting and grant writing and staff time to make those strategies into reality.”
“The goals really speak to me as a community member, to what I want to see for my community as it relates to climate,” said Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards.
Commissioner Brim-Edwards emphasized the need to be clear about the portions of the plan Multnomah County can directly change and be held accountable for, and reiterated her support for a focused plan that includes only these strategies within the County’s control, and that other strategies be included in a community toolkit. Commissioner Brim-Edwards also asked for a cost analysis of the strategies
“Those are the things we should drive hard — not that we're not working on the other items or that we're not going to be part of a broader coalition,” she said. “But we need to demonstrate that we're walking the talk and we're taking the action on the things that we can take an action, not just telling other jurisdictions or others to do something while we as a County haven't done our own work.”
Sharing that he and several other elected officials recently toured City of Roses Recycling and learned about how they are supporting a sustainable, circular economy that reflects our climate action goals, Commissioner Vince Jones-Dixon said he hoped “we can continue thinking about the private sector and the role that they play, especially in districts 3 and 4 in East County."
“I recommend we continue to engage with the East County cities, as well as the unincorporated portions of the County and what role they play,” he added.
“I do appreciate the approach of this plan because I think, historically, we don't focus on communities that are disproportionately impacted by climate change,” said Commissioner Meghan Moyer. “There was a lot of intentionality put into this. I feel like it really does dig into how people in these communities bear that burden and tries to focus recommendations on that, and I support that.
“I agree with what is laid out as the real price people today are paying and what is likely to continue. And it's also important to acknowledge that we don't all bear the price of climate change equally.”
Commissioner Moyer also echoed concerns from other commissioners around funding the plan’s proposals. “With our budget reality, some of these things say ‘create fund’ and ‘advocacy.’ I'm a little curious, if we couldn't create the fund, what level of advocacy could we do within our existing funds.”
“When we set out to create this blueprint, our North Star was partnering with those most likely to experience the harms of our climate crisis as partners in creating solutions,” said Chair Jessica Vega Pederson.
“I want to appreciate everyone's work on this and I support the next steps of really engaging around the key areas that have been outlined in the plan. We've heard loud and clear the request for some more details around what this looks like and the work that's happening with some of the other efforts and it's good to hear that some of that coordination is already happening.”